Calendar for Tots

Oma and Opa went away for two whole weeks and promised my kiddos a special lunch upon their return.
You can imagine how many times I knew, over the course of those weeks, I'd be hearing "Are Oma and Opa back yet?!"
Maybe you've experienced something like this when your kids are looking forward to visitors, parties, or vacations.
I'm here to offer you an INCREDIBLY simple and helpful tip that will save loads of questions and get the kids excited about the upcoming festivities.

Cut white printer paper, notebook pages, or construction paper into strips long enough to create links.
Signify a big event by picking a brightly colored page or ink.
On each strip, write a date starting and continue writing dates on the strips through the date of the event, being sure to starting the numbers over if you cross over from one month into another.
Each morning, have your little ones tear a link off the chain.
That's it!
After the first day or two they'll likely not need to be reminded to tear a link off the chain and you'll find that they'll inform you of what's going on and maybe be your reminder for events you tend to forget about.
It's quite handy, really!

 

Additional Tips: 
- Encourage number recognition as you create the links by writing dates on each strip, jumbling the strips, and having your kids put them in order as you staple them into links.
- For your kiddos who read, write general scheduled events like soccer practice or field trips so they can keep track of what they have to look forward to.

On a related note...  Only 27 days until Thanksgiving and 54 days till Christmas!

Becoming a Minimalist: Day 6

Today I wanted to fill you in on a little tip I read in Lorilee's book. The first thing that I shared from her that I loved was the recommendation to dream a little dream of what you wanted your life to be like. Your home. Your schedule. The second tip I loved and can't change is this... 
Just say "no" to storage! 

My gut reaction to this little nugget was "um, yeah... how do you expect me to be organized when I don't have anything to store it in?!" None the less, I got to cleaning and organizing and when I was done with round two of my decluttering I had actually emptied about a dozen clear plastic containers. And then it hit me... I have held on to so much of our "stuff" because it had a nice home tucked neatly inside these bins. Had I not had these bins, I would have been forced to decide whether or not I wanted to try and make a home for these things to begin with. So for me, storage containers just became a means to make my clutter easy on the eyes. That is not what I was aiming for. And so the storage bins are slowly disappearing. Hubs actually choked when he saw me shipping out some plastic bins I had hung on to for years and, from deep within his frugal soul, cried"but we could always use more storage!" This gave me the perfect opportunity to explain that if we don't have storage lying around we won't look for things to store and since we are trying to stop storing and start cleaning, this is a perfectly logical step.
He's a smart guy. He gets it. 
Now don't get me wrong... we have and enjoy some storage. We keep only a few toys in the kids rooms and those are gathered into a shallow bin slipped under the kids' beds. We also have Christmas decorations, clothes waiting to be worn by the younger siblings, and toys that aren't quite age appropriate yet. Those things are stored neatly in tubs in the basement. To be honest, I wish they weren't. I wish we could pare down to zero excess but alas, Hubs and I agree that it would be wasteful to put ourselves in a position to have to re-buy in the future so, for now, we wait.
So today is simple... once you empty a lovely, lid-ed storage container, give it away to someone who actually needs it and then... don't buy more! That stuff is not made from particularly environmentally friendly materials and is expensive anyway! 

For more minimizing tips, check this out.

Becoming A Minimalist: Day 5

Hello
If you're managed to make it this far on this "journey" with me then today just may break your will... but stand strong, my friend. I have taken on this very challenge a couple of times now and have lived to tell the tale. It was actually so rewarding that I am eager to do it again...
That's right, I'm talking about...

Going Through Your Kids Toys!
** If you don't happen to have little mischievous munchkins whose sole purpose seems to be undoing everything you've just done then please, stop reading here... go sit on the couch with a big ol' book and a cup of your favorite beverage and take a nap. While you're at it, take one for me too.**
Now I realize that no matter how many kids you have there's a chance you've kept on top of the clutter. In that case I'm guessing that you've been very selective about the toys that come into and take residence in your home. You may find yourself wondering sometimes what the big deal is and why other moms can't just keep their homes in check. Maybe you own lots of wooden toys, unpainted, unsprayed, carved by hand in Vermont, and have only intentional and lofty purposes such as making all your own art supplies at home, teaching your son or daughter to knit by age 4, and using an abacus made in the USA from 100% recycled-organic-grass fed plastics.(I was like that for about the first week with CJ, my oldest. It was all downhill from there.)
If you're like the rest of us then it's much more likely you have more toys than you'd care to admit. Perhaps you cringe at every birthday and holiday because of pile of loot that your kids come home with and YOU now have to find room for. Maybe you mentally hide certain toys from your kids the second they open particular noise making toys. And I can only assume that you, at least once, have been totally creeped out by said noise-making-toys while picking up late at night, alone by lines like "I see you!". If you're like me, you're tired of picking up the same things over and over again. You literally fly across the room at miraculous speeds just to tear a toy out of your kids' hands because it has too many pieces, your kids are terrible at picking up and you end up doing it, or you HATE the sound of it repeating "Hi! Let's play!" in an unrealistically high pitched and cheery voice over and over and over and...
Yeah.
So if you've experienced any or all of the above it's time to get to it.
I'd like to submit to you that it's not as hard as you may think. At one point, no matter how many toys I gave away, donated, or tossed I had a sneaking suspicion my kids' toys were breeding when we weren't looking as there was always more to filter through. I'm not suggesting that after you begin to get a handle on your kid's toys that this will stop. Things keep sneaking in BUT you'll be able to identify those enemies with stealth speed and deal with before they take over your newly squeaky clean abode.
So enough of my yammering... (must be the lack of sleep talking)...and here we go!

- First and foremost... this is your time to grab a cup of coffee and get cozy because step one begins with some thinking. As I mentioned back at the beginning, it's very important to Remember why you're doing this. This goes back to the original reason of why you're minimizing to begin with. Lorilee Lippincott starts her book off with asking the reader to dream of the life they wish to be living. This is my favorite step of all minimizing. So ask yourself, what is the reason you're doing this? What do you want your home to feel like when you're done? What are your lifestyle goals? Do your goals involve play time? Do you want to make art with your kids? Play sports? Do you mind the noisy toys? Do you want your kids to use more toys that make them think? Do you like down time with video games? No matter what your big picture is... get it clear in your head.

- Now, it's time to make a list, mental or on paper, of what requirements need to be met to keep an item. These can be just about anything but whatever they are, have them speak to your dream home. Maybe this step seems silly but I think it's important for a couple of reasons: 1. You may find yourself more sentimental than you thought you'd be and it may be hard to let things go. 2. If you have a lot to go through, like I did, you may find yourself tired towards the end and stop caring so you throw it into the "I'll figure it out later" pile. Your list of requirements may look a lot different depending on your preferences but if you're feeling stumped... here are a bunch of "if___ than it goes" suggestions to get the ball rolling.

if it's missing pieces...
if it's broken...
if your kids are too old to play with it...
if you never liked it...
if it's from McDonald's and you're not a collector...
if it's made in China... 
if you hate the idea of cleaning it up every time your kids pull it out...
if it's something you won't serve in your own kitchen (pretend food)...
if it has a million pieces and your kids usually pitch a fit when it's time to pick it up...
if you don't have a home for it that makes you happy...
if it's cheap...
if it gives off a chemical odor... 
if it is small and always seems to be on the floor but rarely every played with...
if your kids only play with it for a couple of minute and move on...
if it offers no educational value (sensory, motor skills, math, phonics)...
if it requires no thinking for your kids... 
if, at the end of playing with it, your child can't handle it or starts an argument...
if you know of someone who needs it more...
if you ever find yourself making excuses to others for letting your kids have it... 
if your husband/wife hates it... 
if you refuse to play it with your kids...
if you have a crawling baby who eats everything that's on the floor and it is dangerous to have around...

Really, I could keep going here... but hopefully that gets your wheels turning.

- Okay. Coffee time over. Now it's time to get your hands dirty.
Just as we have done before it's time to get your boxes or bags out. One bin for giving away, one for missing pieces (to go through when it's all over and see if you have collected all the pieces), and one for trash.

- Now... collect all the toys you can get your hands on and put them in a large pile in a very "in-the-way" spot. I find that bringing everything to a central location forces you me deal with the project in one sitting since I don't want a mess left in the middle of the room (I do one pile upstairs and one pile downstairs). Also, I can see everything I'm working with at one time and figure out if pieces are missing. (If time is an issue here than you can always continue picking through a little at a time but today I am highly suggesting this "rip it off like a band-aid" method.)

- If you have a toy or game that doesn't meet any requirements for staying in the house but you still can't let it go, be sure to find a home for it. For example... I loved the game "Mouse Trap" as a kid and found a complete game at a tag sale. I bought it but right now most of our kids are too small to play, rather than keep it out for CJ to request we play with a million times a week, I put the box out of sight in the basement for those special times that Hubs or I are willing and able to play with him.

Maintenance

Okay... now that you have touched every single toy in your home you have much more control over your belongings than you may realize. When Hubs picks up a toy and says "what's this" I can just about always answer and, better yet, pinpoint exactly where it belongs or where the item it goes to currently is. I also know when a toy doesn't belong to us. One of the very best things that happened to me, in regards to toys, is that, after the first round of clearing out, my kiddos took every toy in our living room out and dumped it on the floor and I DIDN'T CARE! It was all mess that I chose to allow in our home and it was all stuff I didn't mind picking up or it was easy enough for the kids to pick up. It was an AMAZING feeling! I also find that our kids are playing with toys that I like seeing them play with more often. We like thinking toys and we have found that our kids have done more thinking since we cleared away the distracting mess.
If you'd like to join me in the fight against kid "stuff" I have a handful tips to continue to maintain the clutter that will continue to try to sneak into your home and undo what you've just done.

- Treat clutter, especially kid clutter, like the enemy and be proactive about keeping it out. It's easy to let an item slip thinking you'll catch it later but, my remember, my friend... kid stuff hides out and breeds! You can't stop it! If need be, keep your list of requirements handy and look it over often. You can also help by creating a line of defense by the main entrance that you and your family use. Arm it with a bin/bag/basket for donating, one for returning (item's you've borrowed or have been left at your house on accident), and one for trash. When we get home from somewhere I do a quick visual sweep of the car. Any small trinkets, toys, wrappers, unnecessary church papers, or "stuff" that we don't want in your home gets tossed then and there. With these bins in our garage, anything that is in our home that shouldn't be now has a place to go right away.

- As I said before deal with all new "stuff" right now. Don't touch things twice. If it needs to be looked over, gone through, or gotten rid of, do it now. Don't waste your time touching it twice. If the time just isn't free, create an obvious, in the way pile, and deal with it as soon as you can.

- When it comes to birthdays and gift giving holidays all of this may get awfully sticky.  Maybe you're a gift giver and you can't help yourself around certain holidays. For those times I hope you can remember your dream home and what it will take to get you there. Maybe instead of buying several small things, save up for one big thing. Also, there are several suggestions out there like "One you want. One you need. One to wear. One to read." The real trick, though, is not what you buy for your family but what others buy. And for this I can only give ideas because each person is tricky and talking gift giving is very personal and you'll have to navigate those waters one individual at a time. With some family we have made wishlists on Amazon for each family member. I especially like this because if there's something we see for the kids in January, we can add it right away and won't forget it by Christmas time. With other family members we have asked that they stop buying gifts for the kids and start taking them on dates. Just today, my sister-in-law, who is an EMT, took CJ to see the new fire truck that just arrived. He got a personal tour of the trucks and and ambulance and got to see the inside! Then they went out for ice cream. I assure you he will remember that experience for a long time to come!

- Occassionally... do the cleaning for them. When the kid has dumped just about every toy out and you know that making them pick it all up will only leads to frustration and tears, volunteer to pick it up yourself. This saves a fight, gets the job done much faster than it would otherwise, gives you a little quiet time, and best of all (for minimizing purposes) you now have the chance to, once again, touch every toy you own and form a bond. That way, you, not your kids, will know when it's time to part ways.

I wish you the best on this one. It's a doozy!

first playroom
orange curtain room
playroom with slide

Becoming a Minimalist: Day 4

After yesterday's kitchen challenge I wanted to go easy on you because, whether you actually went through your cabinets or not, just reading about the challenge can be overwhelming.
That said, today is fairly simple.
Clear All Horizontal Surfaces
You may read that, take one look at your living room and giggle saying to yourself "Oh, that Krystle, she's adorable!"
Well, despite how cute you may find me, I am actually serious.


Do you remember that overwhelmed feeling I described not long ago? Well horizontal spaces speak directly to that feeling. I have always tried to have the house clean before bed and before I leave the house so that when I wake up or return home I do so to calm. Home is supposed to be a place or peace and restoration (and yes, many other things) but not a place of chaos and frustration. Your horizontal surfaces (table tops, counter tops, end tables, chair seats, and the like...) are the most obvious places I can think of that can either speak to simplicity and cleanliness or scream clutter and headaches.

I say this is step is simple because it repeats a process that I have suggested in previous posts...
1. Get a large box or plastic bin and place it in a central location of your home.
2. Pick a room to start in (mine was our bedroom).
3. Take ALL items off one surface (I started with my night stand.)
4. Place all piles of paper in one large pile in a central location and devote time to go through the entire pile, piece by piece, in the very near future (like while watching a light hearted movie with a cup of coffee).
5. Move everything that isn't absolutely necessary into the box.
6. Move to the next room, taking the box with you, and do the repeat steps 3,4,and 5.
7. Once your have gone through all of your rooms, hide the box. Be it in a guest room closet, a basement, and attic, just get it out of sight for one week.

If, after a week, you think your space looks a little plain, go ahead and add a bit of spice but keep it simple.

 

...and "keeping it simple" doesn't mean clean lined, boring, and modern. It simply means "simple".

As with everything, there are a few exceptions...
What if I have a lot of essentials such as my kitchen counter tops?
You get to choose what is essential and non essential in your home. You may be thinking "it's all essential" and though it may be true for some, it is unlikely to be true for most. If it is a necessary item, it may not need to be out on display. The point here is create visual cleanliness. For instance, we had a coffee maker, a wire basket for fruits and veggies, a paper towel holder, a crock for wooden spoons and spatulas, and our family calendar on our kitchen counter at all times. I was only able to pair down by one thing, our cooking utensil crock, by placing all the items in a drawer next to the stove. I'm still trying to figure out a strategy for the rest of the items but for now, just one thing gone is still considered progress and that's what I'm trying to establish. I'm looking for a lifestyle change and a different mindset, not a specific formula for perfection.
What about family photos and heirlooms?  This again is your call but here is my word of encouragement... This exercise is intended to give you a break from your belongings and decide how you really feel about them so put them in the box anyway.
If you find that you can't make it more than a day without the item... it's probably an essential item and, by all means, pull it out. If you desperately miss an object while it's gone but don't necessarily need it, give yourself at least three days before you pull it out. If you find that you're able to make it a full week without thinking about a particular item, needing it, missing it, then after the week is up, consider donating it or giving it away. If it's a picture frame with a beloved picture consider enlarging the photo and placing it in a wall frame or maybe tuck it away in photo album.

Finally, when the week is over, if you find there are items you just cannot part with but don't need enough to put back in plain sight then I recommend one of two things. Either leave the items in a box out of sight for another three weeks and revisit it to see if you're ready to part with them then or designate another home, out of site, for that item. If it is something you just love... that makes you happy to see... I definitely recommend giving it an honored spot in your home. The goal is to simplify and make your home a place you love to be.
Home is where the heart is, after all!

Are you joining us late in the game? See what you missed HERE.

kitchen with wood island
bedroom pix

Becoming A Minimalist: Day 3

This weekend we hosted a ginormous tag sale at our home. It was wonderful and exhausting all at the same time but I realize that a tag/garage/yard sale is all a bit premature at this point since we are still trying to collect all of our "things". So I'll save the story of our sale (and how you can throw your own) for a little further down the road...

Today I'd like to focus on something just about as daunting as organizing your very own tag sale. Today I encourage you to take a long hard look at your kitchen. dun, dun, duh.....
Tackling The Kitchen
This is a hard one for me. I have been through my kitchen several times and still have things I could part with. Hubs and I have taken the first steps of planning a full kitchen renovation and when it came to space planning I wanted to make sure a new layout would handle all of our kitchen doo-dads. I came to realize a few things....
1. Many of our kitchen accoutrements are single purpose items.
2. Many of the single purpose items are rarely, if ever, used.
3. I have several of the same items (cutting boards, for instance).
4. Like laundry, the more kitchen items I own, the more I use, and the more I clean.
5. It's easy to hide all of the excess behind the cabinet doors.

So those were my reasons for needing to go through again and again. Several sources have suggested that to figure out what you really need/like in your closet turn the hangers backwards and only switch them the right way if you actually wear the item. I suggest the same thing with your kitchen gadgets. I dumped them all into a box and put the box on top of the fridge. If I needed the item I would fish it out, use it, and place it in the best drawer for the job. If, over the course of 3 months, I didn't use the item the box went to the basement. If, over the course of 6 months they weren't used I either donated the item, gave it to a friend, or trashed it. (One caveat... if you live in New England and like lobster, keeping 6 or more crackers on hand is perfectly acceptable!)

A few simple and quick tips are...
- Go through your cabinets and toss anything that is broken or dangerous. A kitchen, by nature, has some hazards. Ditch all materials that aren't at their best.
- Analyze all your ingredients. If they are expired, pitch them. If you've changed your diet and you don't eat it any more, donate what you can and pitch the rest. If you always feel guilty after eating it (hello, Oreos) then share them or purge them. This is all about getting rid of the unnecessary, overwhelming, emotionally and spiriturally draining "stuff" in your life. It's time to be cold, calculated, and methodical.
- Empty your counter tops. - Okay, this one is rather difficult for me. Though I haven't cleared it completely, I have been able to downsize my counter-collection from what it once was by decluttering, reorganizing, and utilizing drawer space better. 
- On a daily basis, clean the kitchen. Load the dishwasher, run it, empty it, repeat. (My finger is wagging in my own face on this one!) I assure you that on the days I am able to get ahead on dishes and the counter top is clean, the heavens part and angels sing. It  is such a beautiful sight and is totally worth the 5 minutes spared to empty and reload the dishwasher.
- As with anything else during this process... be thoughtful about what you bring in to your kitchen. Don't bring in food you don't love and feel bad about eating. Don't bring in cooking tools you already have or don't need. This is much easier when you set rules for yourself. As an example: I don't like using plastic in my cooking. There are too many questions about leeching and hormone disruptors for my peace of mind. That made cleaning out our plastic storage, bowls, plates, cups, and cookware much easier and having that rule ensures that I won't bring those things back in to the house.

Another fun tip that I have learned via personal experience is something I recommend through this whole process. If you don't love it and you don't need it, let it go.
It's easy to think that minimizing means you have to only focus on function. I submit to you that form is almost as important as function and should be considered heavily throughout the whole process. Minimizing isn't just about getting down to the things you "need", to me, it's also about surrounding yourself with the things you LOVE. I have been going through this process with that very thing in mind and have found that when I have one item I love, I am happy to let go of 5 other things just like it that I am indifferent about.
For example... I have a soft spot for Pyrex Cinderella Bowls...

Through thrifting, tag sales, and antique shops I have built up a fun little collection for myself. And what surprised me is that I really enjoy cooking with these bowls. It actually perks up my mood when I mix up something in these bowls and it's not something I could have imagined happening unless I had found something I truly loved. Once I owned these, I found it easy to pass on several other mixing bowls that I didn't really want to use any more and had no need for.

Okay. Your turn!
Throw open those cabinet doors, get on your hands and knees, and get serious about organizing your kitchen!
You will be SO glad you did!

  Did you miss something in this series? Check HERE for more

pyrex photo

Becoming a Minimalist: Day 2

Today I figured I'd recommend something simple and fairly quick since the weather is gorgeous and I'm struggling for motivation to clean today.So here it is...

Establish a Morning Routine
I can only speak for myself but it takes a while for me to shake the grog off first thing in the morning but when I'm up, I am ready to take on the world!
... until about 2pm...
then it's back to grog. 
If I want to get something done, it really HAS to be in the morning otherwise there's a good chance it will sit for another day.
For me... an ideal day is ... and it depends on the amount of sleep I get... 
do a quick cardio workout (and I mean QUICK! Like... 10 minutes of HIIT) and get to cleaning. 
Unless it's a particularly lazy day, which happens around here from time to time... I send the older two to get dressed and then I get Bean and Baby J dressed and ready for the day. That means clean diapers, PJs are back in the drawers or in the dirty clothes basket, clothes for the day are on, and hair is done. 
When they're ready I send them all off to the living room to play or read while I spend a few minutes (again, 10-15 minutes tops) making beds, opening curtains and blinds, opening windows (if the weather permits), folding extra blankets, putting stuffed animals away, picking up any clutter in the bedrooms, getting dirty laundry that may have ended up on the floor the night before into the basket, getting the basket into the laundry room, and getting a load started in the washing machine. 
Oh! And I also empty the dishwasher and reload if necessary (which it almost always is in this house). 
Then I make breakfast and we are ready to take on the day. 
All told, this routine, up until I'm ready to make breakfast, takes anywhere from 20-45 minutes depending on whether I need a shower, how cooperative the kids are feeing, and how tired I was the night before (a.k.a. how messy I left the house when I went to bed the night before).
which...
leads me to a second recommendation of 
Establishing an Evening Routine
For our family, the nighttime routine typically involves having the kids pick up their toys in the living room and put their games away before bed. (Whether or not they actually help with this depends on the type of night it has been. Sometimes on crazy days it's best to just send them to bed and do it myself.) 
Before I head to bed I make sure the dining room is cleaned up from dinner (table washed, floor vacuumed) and run the dishwasher (if it's ready).  

I think establishing some sort of routine is paramount to starting and ending my day well. 
Waking up to the  mess puts me off on a bad foot.  
Going to bed leaves something hanging over my head. 

*A little note about bed making. My eighth grade teacher (Miss Brown) told us a trick I haven't forgotten yet. When our class complained about our parents making us pick up our rooms she suggested doing one thing, if nothing else. "Make the bed." Her logic? The bed is the largest thing in the room and if it's messy, it makes everything else look messy. On the other hand, if it's made, it makes the whole room look much better. And she was right! If nothing else, I try to make the bed in the morning just to bring some instant peace into the room and my day. Also, who doesn't love folding back crisp sheets when it's time to curl up and, in my case, pass out?

 If you don't have a regular routine, I highly recommend at least giving it a try. The total time commitment is, on average, 35 minutes of my day and that's well worth the rest I get knowing at least a little something has been accomplished. 

Did you miss something in this series? Check HERE for more

pix found here

Becoming a Minimalist : Day 1

I'm  not gonna lie... I have no idea where this series is going to lead. 
I don't think, for me, it is only a matter of material things.
We moved almost two years ago and, let me tell you, moving is an excellent way to come face-to-face with all your material "stuff". I was shocked that we needed an entire tractor trailer in order to move our things to the new house. Even with that we have extra to take in the car with us. Hubs and I agreed to never do that again. Instead, we will have a moving sale, open the front door, sell/give it all away, and start fresh somewhere else with the money we make.

Beyond the tangible stuff, though, I think this process will involve getting rid of excess in other areas too. Maybe relationally. Emotionally. Mentally. I don't know specifics yet but I'm gonna find out.
So what do you think? 
    if you need a boost and feel a constant undercurrent of stress
    if you're a mom and feel guilty for not doing more with your kids
    if you struggle with contentment
    if you find yourself often saying "I might need it someday"
    if you sometimes dream about having more time and money to do things you enjoy
    if you forgot what it's like to do things just for fun
    if you've ever purchased something only to realize later you already had it
would you think about joining me as I seek out practical ways to get rid of the excess in my life?


For a practical start I highly recommend two things.
1. Pray over the entire process. This all began with a prayer that I could efficiently simplify. I know that I have NEVER known the meaning of the word "need" in my life and I haven't lived that way for some time. For me, it's a heart change that needs to take place and so I pray because without Him I can do nothing. (John 15:5)
2. Get your hands on the book or ebook Simple Living by Loriless Lippincott. She a Christian who offers some really practical ways to get started. Some of the things she mentioned I had already done and heard suggested by others so I will share a few of these as I go along...

Starting today!

Day 1: Cleaning Out My Closet
Fling open the doors of your closet, open all the drawers of your dresser, and tell yourself...
If I haven't worn it in the past six months. 
If it doesn't fit me...
If I don't like it...
If it's uncomfortable...
It it's too revealing or immodest...
If my husband/wife doesn't like it...
If I've tried it on several times only to be unhappy with how it looks and put it back... 
If it's stained/ripped/damaged beyond repair...
If I'm hanging on to it only because I know a simple fix will give it new life (and I have been telling myself that for longer than a month and am not motivated to fix it RIGHT NOW)...
IT'S OUTTA HERE!!!

Set aside items for your own tag sale (you're probably gonna have loads of stuff to sell when this is all over). Donate them. Give the rags to a local animal shelter for bedding, cut them up for reusable baby wipes, or pitch them. Either way, get them out of your house.

The Rationale...
I have found myself folding 7-8 loads of laundry too many times. I kept asking myself why this was happening and I realized it was because it took me that many loads to realize that I was low on clothes which seemed so excessive to me. Yes, we have 6 people under our roof and four of them are ever-so-messy-but-beautiful munchkins, but I know in my heart that we have more than we need in this department and I also realize that if I we all have less clothes to wear, I won't have to wash as many (think of all the unmatched socks!). So keep that in mind... the more you get rid of now, the less you have to launder later! 

A Note...
In this entire process I find that I am my own worst enemy. I can rationalize/convince/excuse my way out of just about anything and up until now I have but I want a different life. I want that extra weight on my shoulders gone. I want to be consumed with my husband, my kids, and doing the things we love to do together. I no longer want to be caught up with the "have tos" of my life which, at this time, most often is "Of course we can go play at the park but you have to clean up the entire basement first" (which often means a trip to the park doesn't happen)  or "I would love to play a game with you but I have to fold these 7 loads of laundry first" or "I would love to go to bed at 9:30 but I need to get the house picked up before I can rest".

So what are you waiting for?!
Go get 'em!

Did you miss something in this series? Check HERE for more

Becoming A Minimalist: Index Page

Introduction: What Got Me Started It's all about the heart for me. I found myself frustrated with my surroundings and with my kids for no good reason. Even our good days were overwhelming but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Was I depressed? Was I anxious about something? Was I pregnant...again?! It wasn't until I started my own "journey" of decluttering that I realized my anxiety and stress went out the door with the "stuff" I was clearing out...

Day 1: Cleaning Out My Closets You've gotta start somewhere, right? I've listed some criteria for how to decide what to keep and watch to pass along. Bite the bullet and get started with me!

Day 2: Establishing Routine Going to bed and waking up to a clean home brings instant peace. Here are some of my tips on how to organize your time at the beginning and end of each day.

Day 3: Tackling the Kitchen This is an overwhelming room all by itself! If you're like me and the kitchen is the hub of your home, it's very easy to get lost in the millions of pieces of cookware, bakeware, and gadgets that seem to gather here. I've listed some practical suggestions to get you through a round of cluttering right now.

Day 4: Clear All Horizontal Surfaces Visual clutter makes all the difference and in under five minutes you can improve a room and breathe a little easier.

Day 5: Going Through the Kids' Toys This may seem like an overwhelming challenge but I've given you several tips and steps to get it done and keep it controlled from here on out. Don't be scared!

Day 6: Just Say "No" to Storage I know, I know... this probably seems to make no sense...



quote

Craft Room Update: Painting Laminate

The craft room became our junk room/drop and run room/avoid at all cost room over the past months.
The idea of sitting down to sew something has been laughable since Baby J was born.
I thought for sure I wouldn't dare let our future homeschool room turn into a dump pile and yet....

Every time I passed this room I died a little on the inside.
And then we got a piano.
I had no choice but to move some things around and so our computer, the one I use daily, ended up needing a new home and so classroom/craft room was now also our home office.
I was thankful for the push to get things done and so my first stop was at good ol' Home Depot for paint and primer. 

Several months ago I found this great hutch at my Salvation Army for a whopping $35.
It's hardwood and surprisingly heavy.
I knew as soon as I saw it in the store that I would be painting it but summoning the motivation was tough.
All those nooks and cranies!
And on the left of the hutch you can see the disassembled laminate bookcase I nabbed from my mom who was pitching it.

Painting Laminate:
After a light sanding, two coats of Bullseye 1-2-3 primer, and three to four coats of gloss trim paint, these two pieces were ready for storing.

The room is still unfinished but it's functional. And that's probably how it will remain until another wave of motivation comes along.

I wanted to note....
The laminate bookshelf I painted was falling apart. I think it was mostly because of the flimsy carboard backing that came with the shelf. Using the old back piece as a template, Hubs went out and bought 1/4" underlayment from HD, had it cut to size, and we nailed it in place. The shelves were sturdy like new again. That little fix was well worth NOT buying a whole new book shelf!
All that is to say... keep your eye out for used furniture at tag sales, thrift stores, and in your own home. It almost always costs less than buying new and has always served us well.

The hutch to the left was a thrift store find for $35, the wood shelf on the desk to the right was a tag sale find for $5, the dining table/desk in the middle (which I'm considering painting Fire Engine Red) was a craigslist purchase for $50, and the bookshelf was free from my mom who was throwing it out. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Cozi: Family Organizing

Just recently Hubs and I were talking about how we have been needing to streamline our calendar.s He makes appointments while at work, puts them into his phone, and I don't hear about them until he's about to walk out the door for them OR the kids and I have appointments and I need him to take a late lunch and he forgets...

We tried syncing our calendars through "sharing" on our phones but that wasn't working for some techy reason... and then I found Cozi.

I wasn't even looking for it but someone I follow on Pinterest pinned a link to Modern Parents Messy Kids about several different family organizing sources, Cozi, being the first suggestion.

I figured it couldn't hurt to try and, so far, I'm impressed.

Cozi keeps a calendar which you can add and see events to from your smart phone, PC, Kindle, iPad.... Each family member is assigned a color and your calendar will be all prettified as you add more events. Hubs can now open the Cozi app, right on his phone, and see where the kids and I will be during the mornings, see what's on the lunch menu for CJ's school, and know what dinner plans are without needing to check with me. If I put it in the calender, he can see it!

Cozi doesn't only allow you to share your schedule... with it you can share shopping lists! This thrills me to no end because now when Hubs is out and about he can swing by the store without needing me to text him a list (first world problems, I know). What a great way to set up Hubs to score extra points with me! He can just show up with things I need! OR  if he's out of shaving cream he can throw it on the list and I won't have to see the disappointment on his face when he realizes I JUST got home from the store and he needed deodorant anymore.You can create your own catagories of lists too so if you have a party coming up or  need items for a recipe you can create specific lists for just those things.

There are also options for a to do list and journaling. Why journaling? If something happens throughout the day you want to share and don't want to forget, you can jot them down for later. How smart!

Overall, I love the premise of this site and so far it seems to do just what I need it to.
Give it a gander over at Cozi.com.

Happy Monday!

Inexpensive Closet Update

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Ours was all kinds of relaxing.
We sat on the couch most of the morning watching the parade snuggled up on the couch and then headed to my parent's for a relatively small gathering around their table.
Yum!

So... with another little man in our family, CJ is going to start sharing a room and a closet.
The boys' room is a good size but it's also the room with the best toys and books so it is the room to be in when the kids are upstairs so I wanted to ditch the dresser we have in there as soon as I can. That meant the closet needed an upgrade and thanks to Hubs, some plywood, and a nail gun we got just that.

It started out as a standard closet...

We stripped the closet and mapped out our plan based on the height of the door opening and the duct work on the right hand side.
We decided on half of the closet being shelving and half of it being hanging space including two bars, one for each son.

To get started we measured the height of the laundry basket we use and added about ten inches in case I slack on laundry, which I will. Then we divided the remaining space above the basket to fit five shelves.

Using a 3/4 plywood we cut a side wall do the depth and height we needed (in this case 18" by 72").
Then, we took inexpensive furring strips and cut them to the depths we needed and nailed them into place at the distances we planned.
(You'll notice that we shorted the top two rails. The very top one is short because our top shelf was so close to the top of the door frame that we wanted to be able to access what was up there. The second one down is short because we ran out of furring strips and didn't feel like buying more just for the couple extra inches we needed.)

Hubs then measured the distance of wall we could access behind the duct for the other side supports (13.5") and nailed them into place at the same distances as the shelves on the upright piece of plywood. (If you were making this and didn't have duct work, you'd want to match the length of these side supports to match the ones on your ply.)

 Next we cut five shelves. For us, that meant four 18" x 24" and one 13.5" x 24" (for the top shelf).

Remember that duct work we had to maneuver around? To solve that problem we notched out a corner.

Time to assemble.
Hubs marked the vertical line to where he wanted to attach the side wall for a general guideline.

He then attached the bottom and second shelves by nailing the shelves into the shelf supports.
Ideally we will have supports on the back wall to nail the shelves into as well but we ran out of strips and time so for the moment the side rails are doing all the work.

 The side unit is complete and off to bed we all went....

Day two, Hubs used the wood we stripped from the old closet and cut it to work for the new setup.
For us, that meant cutting a rail to support another shelf above the bars, cutting the shelf as well, and cutting the original bar into two, as well as reusing the screws and brackets to support the bars. 

At the very end, we decided to throw in one more shelf on the bottom left for toys because, as I said, CJ's room is THE place to play.
And there you have it. We are planning to finish the closet with some trim to clean up the edges of the shelving and to paint the whole thing but for now, it's doing it's job and with a 2 week old it's likely to be a while before that happens.

Here's to progress and a wonderful Tuesday!

America's Cheapest Family

Without giving too much boring detail, I'll just tell you that Hubs and I have been looking for ways to pinch our pennies these days...
With a small student loan, two more years of a car loan, sub par savings account, a rapidly growing family, and hopes for making upgrades in our new house we have decided to prioritize for real.
Don't get me wrong, we have been trying to slim the budget for a while now but every day life manages to sneak in surprise expenses like the one just last week to fix the setting on my engagement ring because the prongs weren't looking so hot and I was afraid of losing a diamond. Cha-Ching!

So anyway... several of my searches for a better budget led me to the same place...

America's Cheapest Family: Gets You Right on the Money

I've included the link above but I just headed down to the local library. (The Economides would have been proud!)

This baby is full of ideas, some brilliant, others wise, and a few seemed downright crazy but in the long run doing some silly things (like bringing a crockpot on vacation to heat dinner in the bathroom during the day) doesn't seem so bad when you think about how much money you're saving per meal and renovations that brand new kitchen at home you worked so hard to pay for. 

Just thought I'd share. 

Happy Monday!

 

Schoolwork on the Mind Without Losing Yours

Problem... Too much to remember...
Solution... 

I have no idea if I mentioned to you all or not that our family has officially taken the first step into homeschooling.
CJ still attends preschool two days at a Christian School, mostly for the friendships and time to himself without his sisters and me.
We also started him in a one day a week program called Classical Conversations (CC). So far, we LOVE it! We've opted to follow the Classical Model with our homeschooling and CC fits right in.
I won't go into all the reasons we've chose the Classical Model here but would be glad to share if you ever want to know.

Anyway... the main work for the elementary ages in the Classical Model is pure memorization. I mean in ALL subjects be it math, science, history, Latin... it's ALL memorization.
That means we have a lot to keep track of over the 24 weeks of material we have to learn and without it front and center I struggled to remember the work.

I headed to our local Christmas Tree Shop (Michaels and Walmart should carry them too) and grabbed a plastic poster frame for about $6.
I framed a piece of fabric I had lying around, not ironed as you can may have noticed...
and, using a dry erase marker, wrote this week's memory work.

We put it up in our dining room across from where Hubs and I sit so we remember to quiz CJ regularly.
Hubs and I agree that this was one of the smartest things we could have done to keep schoolwork on the front burner in our busy home.

Life Binder: Calendars

Today is easy-peasy and requires only a printer to get started...
I did a simple step to get myself started with a smile and found a couple of cute free printables online.
Before I even begin to share what I did I have to tell you that there are about a bazillion options out there. Many free, some on Etsy.com you can buy, many are easy to find on Pinterest.com, and you can use Google if you'd like. Really, the possibilities are endless, especially if you have a basic photo editing program on your computer.

MONTHLY CALENDARS
I used these from "the tomkat studio" for my monthly calendar...

I printed out two copies of these calendars and put them back to back in a sheet protector. The front one is for important dates and events while the one on the back has our month's menu plan.
I take the pages out of the protectors and pencil in new information as it comes and I use a dry erase marker over the plastic to cross off days as I go. 

A COUPLE OTHERS...
From 505 Design & Paperie

A blank from Infarrantly Creative

WEEKLY CALENDAR
I used this for my weekly calendar from Mommy Tracked...

It has a few details I'm eventually going to change out. For instance, the bottom fifteen boxes say "kids' activities, dinner plans, and notes". I'd rather those be the menu for each meal for each day. I'd also like to change the "to do section" and just create a place to stick a blank sticky note for any items I need to add to my grocery list that way I can just grab it and go and not have to rewrite the list.
I usually write the weekly schedule over the plastic on this page with a dry erase marker because it changes so frequently.


A FEW OTHERS...
From Taylor Gray

From Posts & Pixels

 From Blooming Homestead

DAILY CALENDAR
I don't use one but if you're looking for a daily page there are several options out there too...
From Finding Home under "daily schedule"

From Buttoned Up

 From Sherbert Cafe

Life Binder: Supplies

Not long ago I told you about my friend, Paige's, "Project of Epic Proportions" (aka Home Management Binder or Life Binder)
I joined in after a bit of internal kicking and screaming because I know that getting one of these babies set up is a lot of work and organizing however I have been in desperate need of some organization these days and so I have slowly-but-surely been getting on the ball and plowing through.

I've found that this whole process is extremely personal to how you function. That being said I opted to make two books. One book is my daily binder that stays on the kitchen counter which I reference several times a day. The other will be my emergency binder that I describe as my "in case of fire" book. That being said, I have duplicated some of what Paige has done but just to be difficult I have added my own twists. If you'd like more information and resources she's a good place to go as well as A Bowl Full of Lemons, IHeart Orgaizing, and Finding Home .

BINDER

I opted for a 1" binder for my daily stuff and a 2" for my emergency section.

PAGE PROTECTORS

a lot of them!

STICK ON TABS

Calendar Tabs 

Blank Adhesive Tabs 

DRY ERASE MARKERS 

PENCILS

Next up... Calendars

img 1/img 2/img 3/img 4/img 5/img 6